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The Ghostdog Challenge, aka: Hard difficulty, talker playthrough

So as this is more of a summary and a highlight reel of my attempt at finishing a Hard difficulty, talker (pass all Persuasion, Intimidate, Mercantile & Will / Resolve checks) playthrough I figure it'd suit this forum rather than the Codex Playground.

Side notes:

I will be killing things in this playthrough. Underrail is very combat focused and I actually wouldn't be able to finish the game if I refused to kill anyone or anything. Plus I'd be majorly experience starved without looting Oddities from certain enemies and avoiding certain quests.

I'm not great at Psi so this playthrough should be fairly challenging.

I'll be updating this OP with my skill check summary, not sure if I should put highlight reel screenshots in the OP also or as standard replies.

Playthrough started on 23.07.2016.

To business, then. Our intrepid hero's Character Sheet:

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Commentary

Base Abilities:

Agility 10 - I went for 10 to improve Val's Initiative and Dodge & Evasion, as the plan for surviving actual combat is to either kill before I'm killed or simply avoid / absorb all damage.

Will 10 - As you can tell by now, I'm playing a Psi character in order to pass the Will / resolve checks. Pretty much essential that I take 10 Will and just pump points into it every chance I get.

Int 5 - This is for Meditation, as I personally don't like the Psychosis playstyle.

Skills:

I was pretty limited with what I could take here. In order to maximise the usage of Psi abilities I need to completely take the "Psi" subcategory.

Taking all of the "Social" skills was a no brainer; can't have much of a talker without them.

Being left with 30 points I played around with integrating Crafting into my build but ultimately decided that in order to minimise min-maxing, I'd avoid it in this playthrough. Next, I pondered using Stealth and Hacking but figured that without Lockpicking there wasn't much point in using these. Finally, I settled on Dodge & Evasion as pretty much my only option.

Feats:

Simple enough. Nimble in order to get full efficiency out of Dodge & Evasion. Fast Metabolism for the Health Hyp + Psi Booster gains.

Skill Check Summary (updated 07.08.2016):

SGS:

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On serious note, this is some of the stuff i can never do in RPG, aside from difficulty that makes you pull your hair out, i never bothered to memorize the specifics number of skill checks and stuff required

If you're aiming to pass all social skill checks, then you should list those during the tutorial and with the SGS bar lady as well.

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Hm.. I always skip the tutorial out of habit. I could retroactively do it for completionist sake at least. I'm not trying to pass everything, persay, as my meta game knowledge is actually kind of lacking. I'm just trying to sweet talk this beautiful game as much as possible.

Ddin't realise about the SGS bar lady. I might have to actually talk to random npcs for once.

In a talker playthrough? No way! Anyways, what are you planning to do with mutually exclusive questlines? Protectorate or Free Drones? Which Core City oligarch will you side with?

I reckon the Protectorate side has a bit more talky stuff, starting from the hijacked supply train -- you can persuade the bandits to leave it. Then there's the whole negotiation thing with renegade soldiers in Upper Underrail and some smaller stuff in Fort Apogee.

Core City factions are p. much equally undiplomatic, but Praetorian security quests take a detour into the otherwise closed-off section of sewers with psionic pillars. Definitely worth it if you haven't gone through it as a psi character.

In a talker playthrough? No way! Anyways, what are you planning to do with mutually exclusive questlines? Protectorate or Free Drones? Which Core City oligarch will you side with?

I reckon the Protectorate side has a bit more talky stuff, starting from the hijacked supply train -- you can persuade the bandits to leave it. Then there's the whole negotiation thing with renegade soldiers in Upper Underrail and some smaller stuff in Fort Apogee.

Core City factions are p. much equally undiplomatic, but Praetorian security quests take a detour into the otherwise closed-off section of sewers with psionic pillars. Definitely worth it if you haven't gone through it as a psi character.

Click to expand...

Haha. I'm not used to chatting up npcs normally, man.

Great advice, though. Will be going Protectorate as I always thought Free Drones were more Stealth focused, plus the persuasion options you mentioned.

Core City I haven't really decided. Which is the one that has to defend the warehouse?

Coretech. It's Coretech's warehouse. Praetors just need to walk in after the initial attack and mop up.

But the defense mission isn't so bad, it just takes a bit of preparation to stay safe. Here's a random letsplayer doing the warehouse defense on a hard ironman run with SMG spec: https://youtu.be/9tRf0teas5Y?t=40m7s